1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a memory device, more particularly to a semiconductor memory device that does not require a sense amplifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional semiconductor memory device. The semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell group, a plurality of parallel data lines 11 connected to the memory cell group, a plurality of parallel control lines 12 connected to the memory cell group, and a plurality of sense amplifiers 14.
The memory cell group includes a plurality of memory cells 13. The control lines 12 intersect the data lines 11, and are electrically isolated from the data lines 11. The control lines 12 transmit a control signal to the memory cells 13, in order to control the memory cells 13 to output the data stored therein.
However, as the demand for capacity of the memory device increases, a memory cell group 10 with much more memory cells 13 may be preferable. The data lines 11 that are coupled to the memory cells 13 are subsequently made longer, which inevitably increases their parasitic capacitance.
Because of the parasitic capacitance of the data lines 11, a voltage that is outputted by the memory cells 13 may not be promptly propagated to the data lines 11 (i.e., the memory cells 13 may not be able to “drive” the data lines 11 efficiently). As a result, the sense amplifiers 14 are employed to assist in amplifying the voltage on the data lines 11, in order to facilitate data transmission and allow the semiconductor memory device to operate under a higher frequency.
Nonetheless, the sense amplifiers 14 may be undesired components of the semiconductor memory device due to their relatively large power consumption. Therefore, it may be beneficial to attempt to address the issue of the parasitic capacitance of the data lines, and to omit the sense amplifiers 14 altogether.